The Serpent Queen

Haunted Houses and House Parties

It was Halloween once again and so much had happened between this and the last October 31st at the school dance. Miguel had gained and lost two girlfriends and had a life changing accident happen to him; Eli had flipped the script and became Hawk and had gained a lot of confidence and became the top and most badass popular student of the dojo; Phoebe had had a lot of ups and down with Hawk, a deep rivalry that ended very violently, and nearly died several times; Demetri had gained a little confidence in himself by joining Miyagi-Do and he had more friends because of it.

But all four of them had gained a lot of knowledge and training in karate to some degree. The fear over the past year was nothing to the fear they would all feel tonight on All Hallow's Eve, especially Phoebe and Miguel.

They stared at the house in front of them. It was the haunted house in Encino that Yasmine had told her about. The owners spared no expense on the exterior of the house.

Creepy sounding laughter and other noises sounded around the arena. A sign written in fake blood at the beginning of the driveway said. Enter if you dare. Bright strobe lights panned over the house showing fake blood and fake skeletons.

Around them were young children in costumes varying from princesses to witches to superheroes to monsters. Teenagers, who went from Encino, drove around the area in cars throwing eggs at the nicely manicured lawns of the rich.

Miguel and Phoebe weren't phased by the outside of the house, but they were quite nervous about the inside. Apparently, it was meant to be notoriously frightening according to the people that had already went in around it and had came out looking half scared to death.

"You ready?" Miguel asked her.

"Yeah. You sure you want to do this?"

"Why wouldn't I?" He saw Phoebe's eyes go down to the crutches. "They're not going to scare me off my feet. My legs are getting stronger. You don't have to worry."

Phoebe nodded, "Okay. Oh, could you take a pic of me with that..." Eyeing the prop warily, she continued, "...creepy clown behind me?"

Miguel just smiled and took out his phone and took a photo of her from her phone with it behind her with her pointing to it. "I'll send it to you."

"Thanks. Let's go in and try not to die."

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The teens walked through the front door only to have someone with a knife charge at them. Phoebe immediately got into some type of fighting stance to brace herself and protect Miguel, and when it reached them, it faded into nothing.

"Oh, my God. That looked so real but it was a hologram." Phoebe said while putting a hand to her chest as her heart rate sky rocketed.

"You okay?"

"Well at least that knife wielding psycho wasn't real. Yeah, I'm fine." She breathed deeply. "The foyer looks like a foyer of a hotel from a horror movie." She willed herself to look up and not down at the floor. "I don't do horror."

"We aren't pussies and we aren't running out of here screaming. We have been through some real life scary shit. This is nothing compared to that. Right?"

"Right. Bring this haunted house on."

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Phoebe found her boyfriend in the sea of other teenagers invited to Kyler's Halloween party. His parents were out of town so the house was crowded. She knew why he was there, but why she went she didn't know. Maybe to find safety from the haunted house in his arms. She never wanted to go through that fright ever again.